Join us in The Midside for the premiere edition of our Snyder Series, an in-depth look at the work of director Zack Snyder. To "roll camera," we discuss his background, philosophy, and directorial debut Dawn of the Dead. It's a Zack Attack that would even make Mark Paul Gosselaar cringe.

About

Early/Personal Life

Changed his mind after seeing Star Wars during its theatrical run in 1977 (Watch Mojo)

Attended Camp Owatonna in Harrison, ME for six straight summers (The Rumpus)

Played soccer (The Rumpus)

Attended Daycroft School in Greenwich, CT (The Rumpus)

small enrollment (130) private Christian Science boarding school

SNYDER SAYS: “It wasn’t that cliquey at Daycroft. There was only like a hundred of us. It was more incestuous than it was cliquey. That was the problem. Weird but true. There was a freedom for you to be yourself. There were a lot of characters in that group; I think it was because they were allowed to be…At school, at Daycroft, I had the same kind of personality then. I don’t think I’ve changed that much. Other than that I’m a little bit smarter. Maybe.”

His parents were dorm parents at Daycroft School (The Rumpus)

SNYDER SAYS: “I’m at this real strict boarding school with my parents there, and my mother, my mother more than my father of course, happened to let me break the rules and get away with stuff. In some way, I would bend that world to my will, in a really manipulative and horrible way because I was in high school. I mean I feel bad about it a little bit, but on the other hand, it gave me a way I’d approach life, the same thing, I bend the rules of society a little bit and have chosen a lifestyle that’s outside of the normal approach to how to make a living. My mother and father and sister—they were pretty supportive of me. They knew that I was not the sharpest tool in the shed. That I was a bit of a dreamer and you know, I think having them pull up the slack for me as far as what was expected of me from the rules aspect of high school, they let me get away with things. I would have had a really hard time without them.”

Remained dedicated to film throughout high school

SNYDER SAYS: “That time (1980-1984) in my life was a big influence on the kind of movies that I ended up making. I always think I’m going to make a movie that’s gritty and real, but then I make a movie that’s like an opera. I fight it at first and then that’s just the way it is.” (The Rumpus)

2 with Kirsten Elin (a line producer girlfriend after he divorced Denise)

Married his current wife Deborah, who produces all his movies, on September 25th, 2004 (New York Times)

SNYDER SAYS: “It’s a deal breaker [if a film company doesn’t want her to be one of the producers on a movie he’ll direct]. Our relationship is husband and wife, director and producer. My wife is my best friend. I trust Debbie’s taste and way of navigating the world.”

Philosophy

Self-reliance

“Been known to lack a certain assertiveness…when someone [he and his wife] hired fails to live up to the couple’s expectations…he prefers to avoid confrontation and do the work himself.”

SNYDER SAYS: “It can be doing anything. It could be a bad gardener, and he’s not mowing the grass that great. I’ll just mow it myself.” (New York Times)

His job

SNYDER SAYS: “I always say, thank god I have this job or I don’t know what I’d be doing. It’d be sad. I’ve always felt like I have been trying to brand a world for a quite a long time. You know what though, I feel no different. I feel like I’m doing the exact same thing I did in high school. Only I have more people helping me out now.” (The Rumpus)

SNYDER SAYS: “It’s weird I have a job and I’ve had a job since out of college that doesn’t require me to edit my personality that much. It’s your thing. It’s insular and whatever you do, you do. It’s crazy and I get yelled at sometimes by people in a restaurant for being too loud because I just don’t realize it. It’s like you can’t do that.” (The Rumpus)

His influences

SNYDER SAYS: “Blade Runner, fucking Road Warrior, Conan—those movies really stand out to me as movies that have shaped me. Return of the Jedi. Heavy Metal. All that stuff. It’s funny how you get shaped more then, actually, than when you’re in film school trying to be all intellectual. And there’s nothing you can do to change that. I aim my movies, as much as I can, at myself.” (The Rumpus)

Definition of Success

SNYDER SAYS: “Everyone has a pretty great television now, and you’d better fucking give them a reason to get up off their sofa and go to the movies.” (W)

SNYDER SAYS: “My personal success would be that people understand what I was trying to do…If the movie succeeds, it’s that people understand the subtlety. That they’re able to see past the conventions of what they think a movie is and go a teeny bit deeper…” (The Rumpus)

Romanticism in Film

SNYDER SAYS: “It’s a combination of pictures and design and acting and music can create an experience that is outside of the experience that you can actually have in reality, which gets to my motion picture philosophy. People are like, ‘aren’t you trying to make the movies as real as you can?’ I’m like, I’m really not. Reality’s its own thing. And I’m not really into reality that much. I’m into this cinematic stylized reality that can comment on reality. It’s like the most beautiful parts of reality and the saddest parts, but it’s none of this middle ground.” (The Rumpus)

SNYDER SAYS: “I’ve always been influenced by the human form. I’m a big fan of that Shakespeare quote. I tend to leave out the bad part of the paragon of animals quote, because I have this sort of Ayn Rand aesthetic. It was always one of those quotes that inspired me. For whatever reason I was always obsessed with the potential of humanity’s physicality. Especially since we grew up with such a non-physical philosophy.” (The Rumpus)

Ten Golden Rules of Film-Making

There are No Rules

SNYDER SAYS: “Every job, every story, every shot is different. And each time you do it, it’s like doing it for the first time”

The Will to Suffer

SNYDER SAYS: “This is a phrase I got from my friend Marc Twight. He used it in reference to mountain climbing, saying that the person who can endure the most pain will be the one who succeeds in the end. That applies to moviemaking as well.”

Your Point of View

SNYDER SAYS: “It’s the thing that is not right, not wrong. It’s the thing that can’t be put into a technical box. It’s the tone and texture of a story. It’s the individual way of looking at things that makes us different. It’s why we go to the movies.”

Storyboards

SNYDER SAYS: “Storyboards are not for everyone. As a matter of fact, I think some movies would be seriously damaged by the storyboarding process. But for me, it is how I make a movie; it is how I structure a scene. It’s not a shot list, it is an edited sequence. And although it can all change later, it is a good place to start.”

Movies are Pictures

SNYDER SAYS: “For me, visual style has the same importance as story, as character and as the environment. In the end, a movie is a series of pictures and I try to be aware of that at all times.”

Respect

SNYDER SAYS: “Respect the material, respect the process, respect the audience and, most of all, respect the countless incredible people who work their asses off helping you to bring your vision to the screen. Everyone has immeasurable value when it comes to making a movie, so never take it for granted.”

Throw things

SNYDER SAYS: “Not at people, just for fun. On the set this means: Football, tennis ball, rock, ball of tape—basically any object, it doesn’t matter. Then throw: To a person, at an orange cone, into a distant trash can… again, doesn’t matter. At least for me, any version of throwing shit makes even the shortest break relaxing.”

I Still Shoot Film

SNYDER SAYS: “I always shoot film, then move into the digital pipeline. I’ll be the first to admit that the future of moviemaking will be led by advances in digital technology. But the reality is there is just something about film that digital cameras still can’t replicate. Call me a purist, but it’s just how I feel.”

Passion

SNYDER SAYS: “It is almost impossible to duplicate your original passion for a project late in the process. But if you can recall the feeling of that original spark of excitement, you’ll be able to keep your creative ferocity throughout the long haul.”

Shoot Every Shot

SNYDER SAYS: “It goes back to what I was saying about point of view. This is not to say that a second unit director wouldn’t shoot it better, but doing it yourself keeps the tone consistent.”